An investigation of the primary and secondary conflict management style preferences of men and women in the role of local managers, international managers, and college students in Thailand

The purpose of this study was to extend previous research on conflict management style by examining conflict management style preferences of business managers and business students in Thailand. The study included 232 business managers in international corporations, and 200 business students in top ten business schools of major universities in Bangkok, Thailand, to determine their primary and secondary preferred conflict management styles. The five styles of American interpersonal conflict management theory consisted of (1) avoiding style, (2) compromising style, (3) dominating style, (4) integrating style, and (5) obliging style. In the United States, it was found that the primary style was integrating, while the secondary style was a choice between obliging and compromising style. The Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory-II, Form A was used to identify the conflict management styles in Thailand as American researchers did.;The research questions were: (1) Do people in Thailand tend to use avoiding style, first, and compromising style second, when trying to manage conflict? (2) Do men and women in Thailand tend to use the same conflict management strategies? and (3) Do Thai managers in international enterprises and business students in Thailand tend to use the same conflict management strategies?;The study found that integrating was the most frequently used conflict management style and compromising was the second most frequently used conflict management style in Thailand. Men and women in Thailand used the same conflict management style, and the managers and students in this study used the same interpersonal conflict management style as well.;Value systems, decision-making styles, and negotiation processes of different cultures would be a useful direction for future research in the field of international management. Future research of interpersonal conflict management studies in other countries in Southeast Asia, i.e., Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam is recommended. A comparative study of conflict management styles between Thailand and other countries also is suggested.